What does Emotional Intelligence (EI) consist of?
Emotional Intelligence consists of knowing how to recognize, interpret, understand and manage my emotions and those of others in order to be able to act appropriately when faced with them.
First we must know what emotions are, as opposed to feelings. Emotions are psychophysiological reactions that represent ways in which a person adapts to certain stimuli when perceiving an important object, person, place, event or memory. On the other hand, feelings are the label we place on what we feel.
That is, the emotion is the hormonal discharge into the bloodstream and the feeling is what the brain has interpreted from that discharge; thus we can speak of joy, fear, anger, sadness or disgust.
To date, each of these emotions has helped us to adapt to the situation we live in; however, the world has become more complex and the responses, many times, are no longer adapted to what is expected of us at a given moment.
How would you define a person with developed EI?
A person with developed EI is able to identify what he or she really feels. This is very important because with a proper identification, without self-deception, it will make the rest of the actions coherent. That is, if I recognize that what I feel is helplessness because I do not know how to deal with a situation, I will stop blaming the other person for my anger.
Once I identify what I really feel, I am able to express and regulate it, using the tools in my hand; that is, I do not allow emotions to control me, as can happen with emotions such as anger or sadness that have the virtue of overriding the ability to think; but I carry out actions to reduce them and thus, manage them conveniently.
Another important characteristic of people with high EI is that they also know how to recognize emotions in others; that is, they have high empathy, which helps them to connect very well with others, acting accordingly.
Why is it important to have EI?
When it comes to working in a team, establishing interpersonal relationships, EI is synonymous with adaptation, good and sincere relationships, generating trust in others, knowing how to handle difficult situations, avoiding problems, and communicating appropriately.
People want to be and work with people who understand them and a person with a developed EI offers this to others. To be a leader you need a lot of EQ and when working with people you need this quality; especially if they are in your charge; that is, if you are the ‘boss’ of that group (teacher, trainer, manager, etc). For oneself, EI offers stability, self-awareness and acceptance.
- Scholars posit five components:
- Self-awareness or emotional self-awareness.
- Self-regulation or emotional self-control
- Social skills or interpersonal relationships
- Empathy or recognition of others’ emotions
- Self-motivation
What are the keys to progress in EI?
The main key is self-knowledge which leads to self-acceptance; this implies a better performance in the different social spheres, which will favorably influence psychic well-being and personal emotional health. It is also based on learning tools that help to better manage stress and negative emotions, such as anxiety, panic and emotional states resulting from traumatic situations.
People who do not manage their emotions well are prone to suffer from emotional instability with frequent mood swings, which adversely affects their physical and psychological well-being, their relationships with their environment, their functioning and performance.
Why is it that in today’s society it is not an element that is taken very much into account?
We are more and more aware of the need to develop in ourselves and in our children this type of intelligence, which will mark more the success in life than the intellectual capacity, which was what we used to rely on before.
In a stressed society, which circulates at high speed and in which the most negative emotions swarm at will, having this intelligence will provide the person with personal and also social control; people adapted to their environment and capable of giving correct answers to stressful situations, who know how to coexist with people in a satisfactory way and who solve problems instead of creating them is the paradigm to which every advanced society tends.